Smart retailers are aware that in order to reap big profits, they need to come up with convincing marketing plans. However, marketing involves a wide array of activities and before you tread down this road, first you need to determine where exactly are you headed. In order to make your decision-making process less cumbersome, here are some marketing ideas that will help boost your sales.
Track Everything
When you venture on any marketing campaign, it is very crucial for you to keep track of it, even if it doesn’t bear an encouraging outcome as you anticipated. For instance, you should keep a track of ROI (return on investment) from your last campaign and whether the campaign was successful or not. If it the campaign did not bear favorable results, was it because you didn’t set measurable goals?
For you to assess the outcome of your campaign, you need to set measurable goals first. Then you should use suitable mechanisms to track those goals, irrespective of the fact you launch an online or offline campaign. You should assess what your initial goals were and whether the campaign has generated positive results. Your goal can be anywhere from improving sales for your retail store or increasing traffic on your webpage.
Regardless of what results your campaign brings forward, you should always perform a post-campaign analysis so that you get maximum benefit from your next marketing venture and avoid any errors that you did in the first campaign.
Tap On Free Opportunities
Did you place advertisements and banners on busy intersections? Have you ever contacted companies in your vicinity who target the same consumer base but are not in direct competition with you to develop plans where all of you can help each other sell? For instance, your fitness retail store can partner with a gym to provide free membership during Christmas Holidays to top purchasers.
There are plenty of such free marketing opportunities, all you have to do is look around. Although you may have to incur printing cost, the distribution could be for free. You can also email your clients about your unique offerings.
Repeat, Repeat, Repeat
Most retailers try out a marketing technique for once and immediately discard it, if it doesn’t bear significant results. For instance, some retailers would send a single postcard, expecting it to generate the desired response. If it doesn’t garner the attention they were anticipating, they conclude that they wouldn’t market with direct mail tools again. This is a mistake in business, because repetition plays a significant role in convincing your consumer. Businesses run by the rule of seven i.e. a customer decides to purchase a product when he sees it seven times. So it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to send 7 postcards, but you can at least try sending 3 or 4. These would do especially good if you add some banners or ads with them.
Follow The Trail
Following up on customers is a great way to ensure repeat sales. You should always make it a point to reward customers for their loyalty so that your bond with them is strengthened. You can also ensure customer retention by giving them occasional offers and deals.
Be Informative
When you customer is shopping, be as informative and relevant as you can be. Always greet your customers warmly and ask them open-ended questions that would encourage healthy conversation. For example, you can ask whom they are shopping for and what are those person’s preferences so you can help with some suggestions. Help them find the most suitable item, either for themselves or someone else, and become a trustworthy resource to whom they can look up to in the future. As long as you are informative with useful tips, advices and suggestion, you can make your business target a wider customer base.
Train Employees
You spend a lot of time training employees to work on the cash counter, displaying items and opening and closing the shop. But have you thought about training employees on how to sell? Savvy businesses just know this tip and they spend a considerable time in training their employees to sell efficiently to the consumers. When your staff is trained with the right set of skills, it is capable of keeping your consumers happy.
Trial And Error
There is no straightforward answer to which marketing strategy would work best for your business. The best answer is to test and to see. To get a maximum ROI, you should test different versions of your marketing campaign to see which one has the most favorable results. To simplify this process, you can pick small sections of your target market and try a different strategy on each section. Now use the winning strategy on the remaining target market.
Target
Are you aware of the traits common in your three best customers? Probably you are not, and this is why retailers find it extremely hard specifically targeting their customer base. You can begin your targeting by researching as much as you can about your best customers. Then start sending your offers to the emailing list that matches the traits of your best buyers. You can also notch this up by creating multiple consumer profiles with different behaviours and then target them accordingly.
Focus On Customer Relationships
Interacting with your customer is very crucial. A good conversation with a client can come a long way, increasing customer retention and loyalty. Your marketing skills are all that is required for a concrete customer relationship. You don’t have to worry about selling products always. Small “thank you” and “happy birthday” emails are enough to strengthen your bond.
PR
There is a huge difference PR and marketing; however, they have the same end goal i.e. to increase customer awareness about your product, services and your brand. Whenever you have something notable going on such as a sale, a charitable event, or launch of a new product, you should immediately draft a press release sending it to local newspapers, TV stations, websites and blogs. You may not get covered, however, it’s barely a task to write down a PR and email it to concerned media members. If you are lucky, you might get coverage in the newspaper or on some blog. A single coverage per week is ample media attention you are looking for and can help you skyrocket your sales.
